Pressure vessels



Nov. 5, 1963 J. MERCIER 3,109,458

PRESSURE VESSELS Filed Dec. 16, 1959 United States Patent 3,109,458PRESSURE VESSELS Jean Mercier, 1185 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. Filed Dec.16, 1959, Ser. No. 859,972 1 Claim. (Cl. 138-30) This invention relatesto the art of pressure vessels, more particularly of the type known aspressure accumulators.

It is among the objects of the invention to provide a deformablepartition for a pressure vessel, which partition may be securelyretained in position at the rim thereof with substantially no sharpbending stress or strain imposed thereon which might cause weakening ofthe partition at such region, with resultant tearing of the partition,regardless of the number of times the partition is expanded andcontracted due to charging and discharging of the pressure vessel withcontinuous use.

According to the invention, these objects are accomplished by thearrangement and combination of elements hereinafter described andparticularly recited in the claim.

This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending applicationSerial No. 582,535, filed May 3, 1956, now U.S. Patent 2,919,718.

In the accompanying drawing in which is shown one of various possibleembodiments of the several features of the invention, the single FIGUREis a longitudinal sectional view of a pressure vessel.

Referring now to the drawing, the pressure vessel comprises a container11 of strong rigid material, such as steel, capable of withstanding highpressures, said container being substantially spherical at one end as at'12 and open at its other end as at 13.

The end 12 of the container has an axial opening 14 in which is mounteda closure assembly 15 defining a port through which a fluid underpressure, such as oil, may flow into and out of the container.

As the valve 16 controlling the fluid port may be of any suitable typesuch as that shown in Patent No. 2,721,580 and per se forms no part ofthis invention, it will not be further described.

Positioned in the container 11 is a deformable partition 21,illustratively a collapsible and expansible bladder which desirably isof resilient material such as rubber or synthetic plastic of likephysical characteristics.

The bladder 21 is desirably substantially conical in contour and itswall thickness progressively decreases from an annular region 22 spacedfrom the rim 23 thereof, at least some distance toward the free end 24of the bladder.

The bladder 21 is supported at its rim 23 in such manner that regardlessof the number of times it is expanded and contracted during charging anddischarging of the pressure vessel, no sharp bending stresses will beimparted to the portion of the bladder wall adjacent such supported rim23.

To this end, an annular supporting member 25 is desirably molded intothe wall portion of the bladder adjacent the rim 23 thereof. Thesupporting member 25 desirably is of resilient sheet material such asmetal or suitable plastic, and is substantially L-shaped in crosssection.

One leg 26 of the supporting member 25 extends laterally outward and isseated on an internal annular shoulder 27 near the open end 13 of thecontainer. The other leg 28 of the supporting member extends downwardlyinto the wall portion of the bladder 21 adjacent said rim 23. De-

3,109,453 Patented Nov. 5, 1963 "ice j sirably, the junction betweenlegs 26, 28 is rounded as at 29 to eliminate a sharp edge.

Means are provided to close the open end 13v of the container and toretain the bladder 21 and annular member 25 in position. To this end, acover plate 31 is provided which has an axial opening 32 in which asuitable gas valve 33 may be positioned. The periphery 34 of the coverplate 31 is designed to be positioned on the rim 23 of the bladder overthe leg '26 of the supporting member and by means of a threaded collar35 coacting with complementary threads on the container the cover plateis urged downwardly to clamp the leg 26 against shoulder 27, the thuscompressed rim 23 of the bladder forming a fluid-tight seal.

As shown in the drawing, to ensure that bending of the bladder will notoccur at the region adjacent the lower edge 37 of the supporting member25, the wall thickness of the bladder from near the rim 23 thereof tothe annular region 22 is substantially constant, having a value of sayT, and the annular region 22 from which the thickness of the bladderwall decreases is spaced from the lower edge 37 of the annular member 25by a distance D.

The distance D must be such as to ensure that the bladder does not bendover the lower edge 37, yet must not be too great as to diminish theutilizable volume of the pressure vessel, and a value of D equal to atleast twice, and preferably three times, the thickness T has been foundto be suit-able.

With the construction above described, as the thickness of the bladderwall at the zone where it leaves the container wall as at 22 is lessthan in the vicinity of the supporting member, the bladder will flexwhere the thickness is less, i.e., at the region 22, hence no sharpbends will occur at the lower edge 37 of the supporting member 25.

It is also to be noted that since the thicker portion T will pressagainst the wall of the container, the resultant friction will reducethe stress on the bond of the bladder to the supporting member.

With the construction above described, a deformable partition isprovided for a pressure vessel which will be restrained from any sharpbends regardless of the number of times the partition is expanded orcontracted, and hence is capable of continuous use for long periods oftime without likelihood of breakdown of the partition.

As many changes could be made in the above construction, and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope of the claim, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanyingdrawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A pressure vessel comprising a rigid container having a mouth at one endwith an internal annular shoulder and a port at the other end, aflexible partition in said container, the wall of said partition beingextensible, said partition having a circular peripheral edge and asupporting member of flexible resilient substantially rigid sheetmaterial having a portion thereof embedded in said partition walladjacent the peripheral edge thereof, said portion extendingsubstantially parallel to said partition wall, said portion having aninner edge positioned in said partition,

said supporting member being an annulus substantially L- sh-aped incross section forming a pair of legs, one of said legs extendingsubstantially latenally outward and resting on said shoulder, the otherleg defining the imbedded portion, said partition having a portion ofthe wall thereof of substantially constant thickness extending from atleast near the peripheral edge thereof past the inner edge of saidannular supporting member, the thickness of said partition wall beingreduced along the length thereof from the constant thickness wallportion thereof toward the portion of said partition remote from itsperipheral edge, the distance between the inner edge of said supportingmember to the region at which said reduced wall thickness begins beingat least twice as long as the thickness of the constant thickness Wallportion, a cover plate extending over the mouth of said container, andmeans securely to clamp said cover plate against said outwardlyextending leg to retain the latter on said shoulder and retain theperipheral edge of said partition in fixed position with respect to themouth of said container with the constant thickness portion of saidpartition in engagement with the wall of the container adjacent themouth thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,365,063 Downey Dec. 12, 1944 2,394,401 Ovenbeke Feb. 5, 1946 2,773,511Mercier Dec. 11, 1956 2,786,488 Mercier Mar. 26, 1957 2,878,834 MercierMar. 24, 1959 2,904,077 Trumper Sept. 15, 1959 Mercier Jan. 5, 1960

